these kinds of over written jrpgs are my favorite and it sucks ive still not gotten a chance to play either suikoden 1 (the gui is a huge turnpff) or nocturne - i also dunno the best ways to play either.
really its hars for me to describe just how different modern jrpgs are from this stylen and it didn’t actually translate to the psp or the ds the way its written as happenning
in a way the jrpgs that made the leap to habdhelds, and those style of games feel more…actually immaturen maybe? lile they don’t even attempt to try broader concepts but circle a drain of strange boy-love-girl=then kill god
I’d also place Wild Arms 3 at the beginning of that trend of weird and possible stretched a tad to far jRPGs of the early aughts. It really went in on tv anime framing by have large chapters that felt more like seasons or arcs of an anime while making your play sessions feel like individual episodes by having an Opening and Ending song when you start the game and pick the “Save and Quit” option at save points.
Well you picked a bad time to drop out because 4 is when they started shaking it up. 4 and 5 was when the battles became mini tactical battles on a hex grid so you had to start considering positioning and turn orders. 4 felt very wonky but 5 started to get a hold on it and started fleshing it out with different layouts and obstacles and sometimes puzzles. WA3 was my first wild arms and after playing more of the others there really doesn’t feel like there was much of any canon other than Filgaia is mostly desert, there’s magic and ancient technology. Other than that some characters will make cameos or get name dropped here and there.
I rented Wild Arms 1 when it came out and aside from the music and unforgivable polygonal models for the battle screen the only thing I remember is that when you walked through a puddle your sprite left little wet footprints that slowly disappeared
wild arms 1 had all kinds of weird stuff, like how there was a guy you could pay to change the names of all your party members, and how there was a simple paint tool thing that let you redraw all the menu icons and backgrounds.
Anime OP is nice, mostly those spirited horns vox and synth! I used to have all the dvds probably super cheap clearance from Gamestop, not sure where they went other than charity? Didn’t toss em. The first few eps came off mediocre at least compared to whatever else I binged at the time.
The first opening feels like it contains a lot of the jrpg magic (through newamazinganimation) that FFVII and the like forked away from.
Also at least…1/3rd of the soundtrack’s really good stuff.
Don’t remember much about the late game other than the final boss being a huge, barely stay alive for countless turns and win by a hair moment.
The ending’s still one of my favorites, perfectly bookends the emotion of the full opening/prologue. Unless you care about ancient spoilers it’s worth a soak in. Excellent reprise version of the opening “To the End of the Wilderness ~ To a New Journey”
i love Wild Arms, but i’ve never beaten one and i feel like the series never really got its footing? Wild Arms 1 was fun and i have fond memories of it as “oh wow, finally, a cool RPG to play before FFVII comes out.” some great music and sprite work.
finally digging into the witness. I don’t have much smart to say about it yet but I love it so far. not many games are this meditative, and I feel like it deliberately avoids “manipulative” game design that dominates a lot of profit driven AAA titles.
Wish I hadn’t taken a break with maybe 75% of it done (around when DaS III came out), I’m so removed from the mindset of that island it feels like I’d need to start fresh to frame, draw lines proper.